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Mike Joy is a New Zealand freshwater ecologist and science communicator. He is a Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Science in Massey University's Ecology Group, at the Palmerston North campus.

Dr Joy is publicly outspoken about declining freshwater quality and ecosystems, especially the impacts of nutrient pollution from intensive dairying and New Zealand's '100% Pure' clean, green image. This has led to awards from scientific organisations and criticism, especially from farming and dairying sectors and from Prime Minister John Key.

Career
Joy was described by school teachers as 'most likely to fail' and left school at 17. He worked various jobs including dairying, labouring, truck and taxi driving, building and sheep farming, before enrolling at Massey University in 1993, aged 33.

His masters thesis, entitled Freshwater fish community structure in Taranaki: dams, diadromy or habitat quality? was completed in 1999 and received a first class honours. This lead to his PhD thesis, entitled The development of predictive models to enhance biological assessment of riverine systems in New Zealand, which was submitted in 2003 and supervised by Russell Death.

He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Science at Massey University in Palmerston North. He regularly gives talks around the country to environmental, farming, community and school groups.

Criticism of New Zealand's '100% Pure' branding
On 16 November 2012, on the eve of the release of the movie The Hobbit, the New York Times published an article contrasting the the picture postcard image of New Zealand as portrayed by Tourism New Zealand with the less appealing views put forward by others, including the Ministry for the Environment, the Green Party, and Federated Farmers. Dr Joy was quoted as saying “There are almost two worlds in New Zealand. There is the picture-postcard world, and then there is the reality,” and that for a country purporting to be so pure, New Zealand seemed to be failing by many international environmental benchmarks.

Following this, Dr Joy was accused of economic sabotage, treachery, ego-tripping and overstatement. Mark Unsworth, from government relations consultancy Saunders Unsworth, accused Joy in a leaked email of selfish egotism and stated that "You guys are the foot and mouth disease of the tourism industry. Most ordinary people in NZ would happily have you lot locked up". Controversial political blogger Cameron Slater initally wrote in support of the New York Times article, stating that it is a "serious problem" that over half of New Zealand's rivers were unsafe for swimming, and that dairy farmers should not be subsidised for polluting. . However, Slater later came out in support of Unsworth's leaked email. Although Slater is also widely quoted as saying that "Joy should be taken out and shot at dawn for economic sabotage" and calling him a traitor, however these words appear to be commentary from other authors published on his blog. Prime Minister John Key dismissed the criticism of the 100% Pure brand, saying that the slogan was not inaccurate but needed "to be taken with a pinch of salt."

Joy's statements were supported by the New Zealand Association of Scientists. In a press statement, the Association focused on claims in a New Zealand Herald editorial that damage currently being done to New Zealand's environment was insignificant and that criticism of Joy was "well-warranted". The Association particularly opposed the implication that the damage caused by Dr Joy to New Zealand's international reputation and potential loss of tourists was of greater importance than "the need for truth in public debate".

In 2016, Joy was quoted as saying that he was hurt by the incident but undeterred, and that "for every one Unsworth, there are 20 people who randomly email me or ring me and thank me for what I'm doing."

Awards
He received the Royal Society of New Zealand's Charles Fleming Award for Environmental Achievement in 2013, for his contribution to the sustainable management and protection of New Zealand's freshwater ecosystems. Recipients of the award are required to deliver a public lecture series over the next year, hosted by selected branches of the Royal Society. Joy's 2014 tour was entitled The demise of New Zealand’s fresh waters: politics and science, where he discussed the sidelining of freshwater science by politics, the lack of acknowledgement of the loss of natural capital, and the importance of scientists speaking up for the science.

In 2011, he was awarded Forest & Bird's Old Blue award for his research into freshwater ecology and his work bringing freshwater conservation issues to public attention.

In 2009, he received the Ecology in Action award from the New Zealand Ecological Society.